The Enemy Within

Acts 20:29-30

Eli Cohen was an Egyptian born Israeli. While living in Egypt, he became fluent in Arabic, English, and French. He worked with the underground Zionist movement, which smuggled Jews out of Egypt and into Israel. He would do this until things became too dangerous for him, and he moved to Israel himself.

He was recruited by Mossad because of his language skills and intellect. After completing Mossad training, he was sent to Buenos Aires where he developed his cover as a wealthy Syrian businessman. In time he moved to Syria where he threw lavish parties for important government and military figures. Pretending to be drunk, he listened to everything these people would tell him. Then, he reported back what he learned to Israel.

One story says that he convinced the Syrian government to plant eucalyptus trees all around the Syrian air bases in the Golan Heights. He told them that it would provide shade for the soldiers from the heat, and it would conceal activities. When the Six Days war broke out, Israel was able to bomb all of the Syrian airfields because they were marked by the trees. This helped end the war quickly in Israel's favor.

In January of 1965, Cohen was caught in the very act of sending radio communications back to Israel. He was arrested, convicted, and hanged as a war criminal. His body was never returned to his wife and three children. During his time as a spy, he looked like a Syrian, talked like a Syrian, lived like a Syrian, but he was an imposter and an enemy to Syria.

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”For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”

Acts 20:29-30

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False teachings are destructive to the Christian life. They do not have to be radical and completely obvious in nature. Sometimes they look and sound very close to the truth, but they are lies. Subtle changes in wording can completely change the meaning of a passage. Taking a passage out of context can mislead people. It is important that we study the Bible for ourselves, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as we study, and do not listen to false teachers.

Paul warned that some false teachers would come from the outside in verse 29. He called these "savage wolves" who were trying to get in among the flock. In verse 30, he warns of a different threat. This threat would arise from within the flock. They were part of the group but were trying to hurt the group. Both are dangerous and should be guarded against. Look at Paul's response to such false teachers:

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”And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”

Galatians 2:4-5

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Look at that, "to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour". The Greek word translated hour can mean a literal hour, or it can mean a fixed period of time; a moment. I believe the latter is better used here. Paul is saying that we did not even give them a moment of time to spew their wicked philosophies. If you know that false teachings are being promoted, Christians should have one of two responses. First, we speak the truth in love. It could be that the false teaching is being spoken out of ignorance. If the speaker refuses to change, then we refuse them the right to speak. If we find that we are in the minority, and most hold to this heresy, then we remove ourselves from that fellowship. What we do not do is continue to expose ourselves to false doctrine, or we just might find that we start to believe the lie like the others.

Remember, ALL false teachings are an ATTACK of the character of God. Theology is the study of God. So, a false theology is a false teaching about God, and it warps our thinking of God.

Father, thank You for the truth of Your Word that reveals who You are to us. Help us to stand against false teachings and stand firm on truth. We know that we can only do this if we know Your Word, and we ask that Your Spirit teach us as we study and strengthen us to stand firm.